Defense Portrays Guerrera's Brother As Violent

NEW BRITAIN — A defense attorney for Michael Guerrera, on trial in the beating death of a 19-year-old in 2011, tried to portray his brother, Dennis Guerrera, as a violent person on Friday morning while cross-examining the brothers' stepmother.

April Wells, the stepmother, testified that she had arguments with Dennis Guerrera when he lived with her, but attorney William H. Paetzold said Guerrera had once threatened her with a knife. Wells denied that ever happened, and also denied that Dennis had threatened to burn down her father's house.

Dennis Guerrera, 23, pleaded guilty to murder in the death of Dylan Sherman, whose beating started in Bristol late on Feb. 22, 2011, and continued in Plymouth, where his body was found the following morning. Dennis Guerrera is serving a 40-year prison sentence.

Michael Guerrera, 22, is charged with felony murder, first-degree kidnapping, accessory to first-degree assault and conspiracy, among other charges.

His trial opened on Monday and has included testimony from friends and relatives who interacted with the brothers in the hours surrounding the homicide.

Among them was Wells, who told jurors on Thursday that she had driven Michael and Dennis Guerrera from Terryville to their home in Waterbury the night of the beating.

Dennis Guerrera told her that they had killed Sherman, but Michael Guerrera dismissed the comment as a joke and said they had only beaten him, Wells testified.

Paetzold, one of two attorneys representing Guerrera, noted on Friday morning that Wells gave law enforcement multiple statements, each more detailed than the last, and suggested that her statements evolved as she spoke to other witnesses and to police about the crime.

"Is it fair to say that your statement is an accumulation of rumor and innuendo and what your heard from other people?" he asked during his questioning of Wells.

April Wells' niece, Amanda Wells, testified that she overheard Michael Guerrera tell his brother, "I didn't leave any evidence." Paetzold raised the question of why comment by Guerrera wasn't mentioned in her initial statement to police.

A state police detective also testified Friday about collecting blood samples from the scene in Plymouth where the body was found and from an apartment in Bristol where the beating started.